The actual morgue was like something from a vivid nightmare. Heaving heavy breaths, Hunter slowed as rows upon rows of bodies surrounded him. Like a transparent graveyard, corpses were laid on metal tables in neat little rows while freezing air seeped from the icy walls. Medical equipment hung like weapons and each form was covered by a pristine white sheet. Staring at the faces of countless bodies, Hunter could almost imagine his own brother beneath each cloth, dead and gone.

Hunter swept the idea of limited time out of his mind as he weaved through the aisles. His eyes were drawn to each cart, to each faceless image of his brother...

The crash echoed through the cavernous room.

Hunter's heart felt like burning coals as he raised his eyes to the intruder. He was hardly an employee -with blue hair covered by a baseball cap and startled eyes bigger than the sun- but Hunter couldn't tear his eyes away. A collection of surgical knives lay scattered at the boy's feet while the sound of his breathing filled the entire room. Haggard and broken, he was hunched over in a fit of pain, skin greyed as if all the life had been sucked out of him. As the boy winced, Hunter shuddered as memories flowed through his head.

"Johnny?" He choked on the name, fragile lips building it syllable by syllable. He hugged himself as he took another step forward. The boy shuddered and the madness taunted his mind with possibilities of lies. With a quivering lip, he moved closer and closer.

Jonathan took a step back with eyes stapled to Hunter's breaking body. Then, as if kissed by a moment of clarity, his breath calmed, eyes widened, and hand raised to meet him.

Hunter bit his lip as thousands of emotions ripped through him. Every curve of his face, every cautious, calculated move was just like his memory. The thief that stole his childhood was reaching out like a dangerous dream, a deadly wish that he could be real. And as the greyed, worn skin brushed against his arm, Hunter felt all his heat flood into those fingertips.

Building like an icy stream, his toes went numb while gaze froze on Johnny's terrified eyes. His hair stood on end as ice ripped through his scalp and all heat surged towards the single spot where their skin touched.

Hunter tried to move his lips, but staring into his brother's eyes, he was a sculpture of ice while Jonathan woke from a trance.

Jonathan sprung backwards and wrenched his hand from Hunter's arm. Scrambling and screeching, he lunged across the room, sprinting across knives and stumbling into each and every table as terror decorated his face. Frantic shouts taunted the air as Jonathan pressed himself against the wall, the once-wide eyes now drenched in terror.

"Stay away from me!" Bloodcurdling and bone-chilling, he pushed himself against the stone walls as if he might fall through it, absorbed into pure concrete.

"...Johnny..." Hunter shook the ice from his mind as the warmth returned to his limbs. Warbling an icy lip, he took a dazed step closer to the trembling boy. "...You're...alive..."

"Get away from me!" A heaving breath ripped through his brother. He had hardly aged a day from the moment they had parted ways. "You hate me! Don't you remember how much you hate me?!"

The thought tickled the back of Hunter's mind as he drifted closer, unsure if he was angry or relieved. With the madness subsiding to a dull throb, his mind was clear the first time in years. But with the organized thoughts drifting as easily as his feet across the ground, all he wanted was to embrace Jonathan.

"I...don't know anymore." He stated as the gap between them shank.

"You're going to ruin everything!"

"Ruin what?"

Jonathan's eyes darted across the room as he stumbled towards the door. He clung to the wall with each movement, back pressed to the cold concrete.

"Everything!" He could hardly form his words through the fear coating his throat. "Erica's gone! Jack's gone! I won't let you take her away! She's my last chance!"

"Kiana?" Hunter paused as the name slipped through his mind, clear as day. Held in place, Jonathan's frantic eyes confirmed his fears. "What are you doing to her?"

"It doesn't matter!" Spitting his words, anger seeped into his voice. "She was never supposed to be there! She came to me so now she's my problem!"

"How..." His words fell away as he realized there was no end. There were so many questions Hunter wanted to ask, so many mysteries he wanted to be uncovered. Jonathan was fragile and breaking, yet between Kiana's determination and curiosity, Hunter could only guess one reason for his brother's presence.

"You're going to kill her."